CHICAGO -- Encouraged by a playwriting fellowship from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, Chicago theater artist Donna Blue Lachman is travelling to Venice, Italy from April 20 through May 5 to research the colorful life of visionary art collector Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979), philanthropist, patron, bon vivant -- and, according to Lachman, a notorious cheapskate and petty egotist.

CHICAGO -- Encouraged by a playwriting fellowship from the National Foundation for Jewish Culture, Chicago theater artist Donna Blue Lachman is travelling to Venice, Italy from April 20 through May 5 to research the colorful life of visionary art collector Peggy Guggenheim (1898-1979), philanthropist, patron, bon vivant -- and, according to Lachman, a notorious cheapskate and petty egotist. It will all be grist for Lachman's newest one-woman show The Trouble with Peggy, That Bohemian Guggenheim scheduled to premiere at the Blue Rider Theatre in February 1999. Lachman will interview Peggy's former friends and associates, as well as visit the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, a treasure trove of 20th century painting and sculpture on the Grand Canal.